Enhancing Core Teaching Skills with Technology



#2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments


Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:

  • design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity
  • develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress
  • customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
  • provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching

My artifacts demonstrating this standard (What?)

1. This wiki, A Thousand Flat World Tales, brings students from around the globe together and gives them the opportunity to write short stories and share them with other students.

2. This wiki, A Broken World, takes information that the students have gathered about history from WWI to the Cold War and posts it on a wiki. It is supposed to be used as their textbook. What a great learning experience for students! It is mind boggling the kinds of things that the students could have come up with when they have the ownership of studying and creating their own online textbook.

3. This is my . This document demonstrates this standard because it is examples of how examples of 21st C. learning experiences and assesments have been used in various ways - from the theory to the practice of the flat classroom.

4. This is a link to my google form. This form is just a quiz for Chapters 1 - 3 of the book, A Wrinkle in Time. This is for my Young Adult Literature class. My goal for this class is to make it paperless. The first book we read, A Bridge to Terabithia was not paperless, but my goal for the rest of the semester is to have it paperless. I am going to email all of my documents to the students and they are going to take all tests and quizzes using google forms and docs.
5. In Port Allegany High School, teachers and students have access to gaggle.net. Gaggle is filtered email for education. It also has documents like google docs. I have been using the email feature with my students. For this assignment, I emailed my students instructions to write a short story. They wrote the short story and then shared the document with a friend. The friend read the document and added their comments to the document. Additionally, some students emailed their responses back to the original author. I am now in the process of responding to their short stories using the same sharing tool.

6. Following is a reflection of project-based learning in my classroom.

I have learned a lot over the pass year and a half about project-based learning. It is a difficult concept for me to wrap my mind around. I just know I do not do anything that is what they describe. I really like to do projects with my students, but they are always the assessment at the end of the a unit. For example, two of my seventh grade classes wrote skits for a short story they read and then filmed them. It was a fun project that utilized technology, but it was not a learning based project...
I see that students would really learn a lot from a project that they were trying to learn from...the downside...I just wouldn't know where to begin as a teacher. Also, the students would really need to be independent. I know that they would need some basics before we began - students always do need to start with the basics.
I think with independent reading I could start using project based learning. I could have the students share information about books using Web 2.0 tools like glogs and prezis. Students could also collaborate using a wiki or even gaggle email and email glogs.
I have no idea what I would do...or what I could do at this time. I am sure that there is something I could do with my Young Adult Literature class. With technology, I always like to start small and then go from there.

7. This is a link to my Searching Document.

8. Following is my discussion post dealing with evaluating websites.

Yes - it was funny. I first came to the site and really tried to look at it objectively. The term, Dihydrogen Monoxide, really had me conviced. But, of course, I eventually figured it out. Water, water, everywhere, and I am just an idiot...isn't that how it goes?
Anyway, I found a web site evaluation form from readwritethink.org that I believe would do well for middle grade students - http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson328/evalform.pdf. My problem with it is that it is in PDF form and I would have to print it out. I guess I could go through the trouble of copy and pasting onto a word document and then emailing to the students or posting on the wiki, but I really like the Web 2.0 tools. I found an interactive web site for evaluation from readwritethink.org, but they have to print the information when they are finished.
When I went through the web site, I found no author and the goal of the website was to...um...ban water - which probably isn't a good thing. Obviously, the audience of the web site was this class...I do wonder who actually made the page...
I think it is easy to be fooled on the web, but I think more and more, teachers can direct students to sites that will not fool them. Most, if not all, of the work that I do with my seventh, eighth and tenth graders is quite controlled. I have not once asked my students to just go out to the web and find information. I always have web sites already set up for them to use. Also, I can direct the students to good places. I would assume with older and more research savy students, I would need to take a different approach and review the types of information reviewed in this class regarding effective searching strategies and evaluation of web sites.

9. This is my lesson plan for the week I have my students using gaggle to collaborate on graphic organizers.




As I reflect on the lesson, I found that my students worked harder on their assignments and were more careful because they knew it was goig to be shared with the group. I also found that my students were excited to use the technology and were very interested to see how the technology worked

10. For my innovative project, my tenth grade students are going to create a poetry glog that they are going to update all year long. They are going to write poetry, using the various literary devices required by the state of PA for PSSAs, and embed their glog on a wiki. That wiki will be a collaborative wiki with a group of fourth graders in Susquenida school district. They will also create poetry glogs and embed them on the wiki. Then, using the discussion tab on the wiki page, the students will respond to each other's glogs.

11. For my authentic assessment, my students going to use zoho writer, an online writing tool, to plan, draft, revise and complete an expository essay. To make it authentic, the essay is taken from the yearly Olive Garden Pasta Tales writing contest. Once they have completed the essay, the students who bring back permission slips, will submit their essay to the writing test. Here is my prezi that explains the requirements to the students.

My Reflection on meeting this standard (So What?)


The activities that I included in this standard were all digital...using technology. I think that I have met this part of the standard more so than any other. I have been utilizing the technology for assessments as well. Currently, my students are creating a glog to represent what they know about plot, character, setting, point of view and theme. I have also been using google forms to create all of my tests. I have not been to the copy room in weeks.

My Future Learning Goals related to this standard (Now What?)

I am going to continue to think about how I can replace current activities and assessments using the variety of technologies and Web 2.0 tools that I have at my disposal.